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We’ve finally arrived in 2020, and that makes this weekend’s visit by Destiny 2‘s weekend vendor, Xur, the first of the year. As usual, Xur brings a host of Exotics that can help you fill out your collection, as well as a handy Fated Engram to get you one item you don’t already have and that’s not in his inventory.

If you’re cramming activities to upgrade your Sundial obelisks or complete more baked treats for The Dawning, visiting Xur can be a great way to get yourself new items that can help. While you’re at it, be sure to check out our Dawning recipe guide to help you make all the treats you need to unlock the holiday event’s Exotic sparrow.

Xur Location

Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scararea this weekend. He’s offering Lord of Wolves as his Exotic weapon. For Hunters, Xur has ST0MP-EE5 leg armor; for Titans, it’s Dunemarchers leg armor; and for Warlocks, you can get Sanguine Alchemy chest armor.

To find Xur’s location, spawn in at the Giant’s Scar transmat zone, then ride your sparrow north through the archway. Head to the left side of the area and look for a cave set into the wall. Xur hangs out inside.

What Is Xur Selling?

The inventory Xur brings to the solar system this weekend isn’t too impressive, although he does sport one Year Two item in Lord of Wolves. If you don’t have it, the shotgun is still a powerful tool in the Crucible, although the period in which it was nearly unstoppable and used by everyone has long passed, thanks to a patch from Bungie. For Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are also a must-have for some tougher platforming activities, so take the opportunity to snag these if they’re not already in your collection.

If Xur’s wares aren’t compelling, you can always roll the dice on the expensive Fated Engram he brings with him. This gives you a single Exotic from the limited pool of ones you haven’t already earned, for the price of 97 Legendary shards. If there’s something you’re missing from your collection and you want it sooner rather than later, it can be a good deal–starting with the Season of Dawn, all Exotic Engrams are Fated Engrams, but you’ll have to level up your Season Pass or wait for a random drop to get some. Be sure to purchase it on the character who’s missing the Exotic, and note that you can only get one per week, so choose wisely which of your characters makes the buy. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well.

Xur Item Lineup (January 3-6)

Lord of Wolves (Exotic shotgun)

ST0MP-EE5 (Exotic Hunter leg armor)

Dunemarchers (Exotic Titan leg armor)

Sanguine Alchemy (Exotic Warlock chest armor)

Lord of Wolves

Not too long ago, Lord of Wolves dominated the Crucible, but Bungie has since adjusted the gun to make it less dominant in PvP activities. It’s still a very handy weapon, however, thanks to its two firing modes. The standard firing rate is similar to most shotguns, while holding the reload button switches to Release the Wolves mode, which fires a longer, more powerful shotgun burst of several shots. Think of it like a shotgun that shoots like a fusion rifle–which makes it pretty devastating.

ST0MP-EE5 (Hunter)

Though they’re among the oldest Exotic armor in Destiny 2, for Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are a must. They increase your sprint speed, slide distance, and jump height, which makes them phenomenal for tough platforming areas featured in The Whisper or the Pit of Heresy. Those mobility bonuses can also make them great in PvP situations, too. Put these boots in your rotation if you haven’t already.

Stats:

Mobility: 18

Resilience: 6

Recovery: 2

Discipline: 10

Intellect: 6

Strength: 6

Total: 48

Dunemarchers (Titan)

It’s not just Hunters who can enjoy an Exotic that makes them quicker; Titans also get a boost to their mobility with Dunemarchers. These boots increase your sprint speed, but with a violent bonus–sprinting builds up a static charge that you can release on enemies when you melee them. Punching an enemy with a charge built up will chain lightning to their nearby allies.

Stats:

Mobility: 13

Resilience: 7

Recovery: 6

Discipline: 6

Intellect: 6

Strength: 12

Total: 50

Sanguine Alchemy (Warlock)

There are several Exotics that boots Warlock Rifts, depending on the effects you need for a given situation. Sanguine Alchemy gives you and your teammates “heightened senses” when you stand in Rifts. That effect maintains your radar even when you’re aiming down sights and marks powerful enemies, allowing you to see them even when they’re out of your direct line of sight.

Stats:

Mobility: 12

Resilience: 7

Recovery: 8

Discipline: 6

Intellect: 12

Strength: 6

Total: 51

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-destiny-2-exotic-location-weapon-and-/1100-6472481/

Xbox Game Pass has kicked off the new year with a bang. The company announced today that it has added Grand Theft Auto V to the Xbox One edition of the service, letting you play the full campaign or jump into Grand Theft Auto Online if you have a Gold subscription.

GTA 5 received a positive critical reception including a 9/10 from GameSpot when it launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, but its ports to current-generation platforms and ongoing support for GTA Online have kept it going strong for years. The latest update, released in December, added the Diamond Casino Heist. The sprawling multiplayer mission lets you plan a big score with various approaches. Unexpected problems appear on the fly, to boost replayability.

If you enjoy your time in Los Santos enough to buy some DLC, the Game Pass membership entitles you to 10% discounts on the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack or Shark Cash Cards. You can also save 20% on the base game to add it to your permanent collection. And if you don’t have Game Pass yet, you can buy your first three months of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription for $1 through January 6.

Including GTA 5 in Game Pass is a surprise, especially given that the game is still consistently a top-seller after so many years. It even made the NPD list of top-sellers in October and November, in the midst of a busy shopping season filled with new game releases.

Sony has announced the PlayStation 5 is coming this holiday season, which leaves less than 12 months for the company to announce all the details in preparation for launch. If Sony follows the roadmap set by the PS4, the PS5‘s big debut could be extremely close.

PS4 Reveal’s Event Date, Time, And Location

In January 2013, Sony invited media to attend a special “PlayStation Meeting” to take place on February 20 at 6 PM PT in New York City. The showcase took place at the PlayStation Theater near Times Square, and sure enough, it was at that event that the company outlined the PlayStation 4 launch plans.

This event was the first we’d heard of the PS4’s tech specs, with a detailed breakdown from hardware architect Mark Cerny. The event also showed the DualShock 4 controller with Share functionality, a PlayStation smartphone app, and promised games would be playable while downloading. It also gave a launch window of holiday 2013.

If Sony follows this timeline, which would allow maximum time for its retail partners to prepare for the holiday season, we can expect a similar rollout of information. The debut would take place in the first quarter, possibly as early as February. The 2013 event was scheduled for the evening, giving US fans who wanted to watch live from home the opportunity to do so after work. That time would be all the more important now, as publishers have increasingly messaged directly to fans.

As for the venue, the PlayStation Theater closed its doors as of December 31, 2019. That means the company couldn’t host the event there, for obvious reasons. But Sony could use another theater, or continue using its own property with the concert venue Sony Hall in New York.

E3 No-Show?

Alternatively, Sony could hold its announcements for the second quarter, near or even overlapping with E3. The annual ESA event is usually a showcase for new hardware, and will likely be the first public hands-on with Sony’s primary competitor, the Xbox Series X. Sony may skip the event altogether, as it did in 2019. It hasn’t given any public indication that it plans to come back this year.

Ceding the E3 ground to Microsoft would allow the industry’s biggest event to focus almost entirely on Sony’s chief competition. Sony may not be keen on giving Microsoft such a gift, so it could counter-program with its own event even if it doesn’t attend the show. That could be the reveal of the PlayStation 5, or it could be a public showing that builds upon the momentum from an earlier reveal event.

What We Know So Far

Whenever Sony chooses to lift the curtains, it will add much more to the limited details we have so far. Sony has begun talking about the PlayStation 5, but very rarely and in a tight-lipped manner. In fact, the company only confirmed late in 2019 that the system would be called the PlayStation 5 at all.

We also know the system will use an AMD CPU based on a third-gen Ryzen. It will have eight cores of the Zen 2 microchip. The graphics chip will be a custom version of the Radeon Navi. All that hardware power is said to support 8K resolution, and ray-tracing for both graphical and audio effects. Sony has also confirmed it will include a Blu-ray disc drive, which can play 4K Blu-rays. Finally, it will be compatible with PSVR in some capacity, and Sony issued a statement promising increased energy efficiency as part of a UN initiative.

The PS5 controller will replace the rumble tech from the last several PlayStation controllers with new haptic feedback. It will also include adaptive triggers on L2 and R2, which allows developers to adjust the resistance. Sony says that these two features working in conjunction with each other creates a unique simulation experience. A new UI will allow you to view more details about friends’ games without opening the applications.

What We Don’t Know Yet

That leaves plenty for Sony to reveal, whenever the company decides to do so. We haven’t been given solid information on the price, release date, or launch lineup. We have no information on what the hardware–the console or controllers themselves–will actually look like. And the company’s commitment to more nebulous ideas like PSVR aside, we don’t know exactly what that means.

Most significantly, we haven’t seen any of these hardware or UI features in action. Hearing about features like ray-tracing is one thing; seeing the difference it can make to an environment in a real game is another one entirely. Seeing the PS5 load Spider-Man much faster than usual was nice, but a new console launch demands some graphical “wow” moments. Sony is sure to provide those with a look at next-generation software running on the PlayStation 5.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-is-more-ps5-info-coming-a-look-back-at-ps4s-r/1100-6472466/

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